As the vultures of the press circle over the wounded Liberal Party of Manitoba, one NDP star candidate must be laughing up her sleeve at how her extremist past has escaped the scrutiny of reporters and pundits.
Parachuted into a safe NDP seat in Winnipeg's North End, she nonetheless feared a bruising campaign against a well-heeled Liberal opponent. Ha ha. Instead, the sleepy newspeeps have turned a blind eye to her years of vitriolic attacks on Christianity, white people, and police.
* She's spent years bashing Christianity as the root cause of all the problems of native people in Canada.
* She's called for a boycott of white businesses.
* And with her Marxist research partner, she's smeared city police as intransigent racists.
Step up Nahanni Fontaine, running for election in St. John's riding as successor to the retiring Gord Macintosh.
While her male counterpart in the NDP's galaxy of stars, Wab Kinew, has responded to the controversy over his woman-and-gay bashing rap lyrics and tweets by fervid apologies and hand-over-heart assertions that he's changed his leopard spots, Fontaine has chosen a cone of silence.
* Fontaine set her sights on the evils of Chrisitianity as far back as 2006 while working on her PhD in the department of native studies at the University of Manitoba.
She shared some of the "research" for her dissertation entitled "Old Ladies, Bitches, and Ho's: deconstructing the female Aboriginal gang member" at a public presentation. The university newspaper The Manitoban captured the best parts (March 15, 2006, PhD candidate describes lingering effects of colonialism in Aboriginal communities):
“Unfortunately as a result of the introduction
of Christianity and forced Christian marriages, the incorporation into a
wage-economy, residential
schools, and the introduction of alcohol, Aboriginal men’s and women’s roles have significantly changed,” said Fontaine.
schools, and the introduction of alcohol, Aboriginal men’s and women’s roles have significantly changed,” said Fontaine.
And...
"It is a space of physical and cultural genocide that continues to exist in and at this very moment," added Fontaine.
* She was still at it four years later, only more belligerent in her attack. This time it was over the proposal of a Youth For Christ funded youth centre at Main and Higgins.
Nahanni Fontaine, director of justice for the Southern Chiefs Organization, an advocacy group for First Nations people in southern Manitoba, said giving public money to the project would be like contributing to the contemporary version of residential schools under the guise of helping youth.
"[We] saw religion used as an abusive and violating mechanism in which to assimilate aboriginal children into Euro-Canadian mainstream," she said.
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| Assimilated? |
"Aboriginal people were assured that these sort of infringing practices and strategic policies would never occur again."
Approving this proposal would just be sanctifying a "more contemporary form of the residential school experience," Fontaine said.
* Between her attacks on Christianity, Fontaine endorsed a broader race-based policy, if only for one day.
On something called a 'national day of action', Manitoba's Southern Chiefs Organization, Fontaine's then-employer, called for a boycott of non-native businesses. She thought it a fine idea.
Boycott non-native businesses Friday, Manitoba chiefs urge ...
https://caledoniawakeupcall.wordpress.com/.../boycott-non-native-busine...
The boycott would be one way to demonstrate the economic power of the native community, said Nahanni Fontaine, director of justice with SCO.
Aboriginal people as a group spend huge amounts of money, she added, but little of it stays in aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal people as a group spend huge amounts of money, she added, but little of it stays in aboriginal communities.
"The idea is that we're sustaining our own poverty. We need to in some ... tangible way, even if it's just for one day at this point, to stop buying products and services from non-aboriginal businesses."
The decision to call a boycott follows the recent SCO election of a new grand chief, Morris Shannacappo, and is the beginning of a long-term strategy of economic action, Fontaine said.
"I don't want people to think that it's personal, that it's an attack on individual business owners," she said. "It absolutely isn't. But it's about time that we need to support our own."
* Nahanni knows all about supporting "our own".
As the "director of justice" for the Southern Chiefs Organization, she was all about trash-talking police, calling them racist, and demonstrating knee-jerk solidarity with every native with a beef against authority. Like Evan Maud.
Evan Maud, a 20-year-old "high school student", claimed in 2010 he was picked up by police at a bus stop in the North End (not the St. John's riding), driven to the outskirts of town, stripped of his coat, and told to run or be tasered.
"Its not an isolated event," declared Marxist professor Elizabeth Comack of the University of Manitoba.
Calling on research conducted with Nahanni Fontaine, Comack said they uncovered 10 similar incidents among 78 aboriginal people they interviewed.
"They feel they can't tell anyone or report to anyone, or that anyone would do anything if they did," said Comack.
"Evan has the courage to speak out."
Except that modern technology, GPS and video-cameras, ultimately proved that Evan Maud was lying through his teeth.
None of what he said was true. Dang that white man's wizardry.
Fontaine shortly thereafter got a nice government job and has managed to hide her extremist past so far in the election campaign. But if the politicos get tired to feasting on Liberals, she makes a tasty target.